Smart communities in virtual reality. A comparison of design approaches for academic education

Abstract

Smart communities adopt „virtual reality” (VR) for many purposes, amongst others for educational purposes. However the development of educational technologies under the concept of „„VR is neither a core issue in academic education nor in applied research publications, although potential exists. With the goal of closing this gap, the authors investigate possibilities of VR in teaching and training. Whether we can speak of a new didactic technique and if certain smart communities adopt such is investigated through three cases. Our focus is on who the target audience is, what requirements need to be considered, and how this manifests in the teachers’ activity. Subsequently, a starting point for a target group-oriented design of virtual reality in higher education is provided.

Keywords

• virtual reality
• educational technology
• smart community
• academic education
• case study